Well, another big day for our little crew. Looked at the morning paper, online, of course, to discover that the Ice Palace would be coming under the wrecking ball at 9:45am this morning. Turns out that was a figure of speech, unfortunately. I took the little man down to the bus stop for his first city bus ride, just the day after his monumental first school bus ride, and headed downtown for the blessed event (he thoroughly enjoyed the ride, but was befuddled by the lack of safety belts). We arrived rather early, but a crowd started forming before too long. Including a select group of schoolchildren there for a photo op with the mayor. Though 9:45am seems to have been just an approximate time. Naturally the politicos were running late, but still took advantage of the opportunity to shill…both about the potential use of the site for a baseball stadium (complete with mascot guy walking around with a giant baseball mask), and to promote an upcoming Children’s Festival. Admittedly there will be some cool events to look forward to with the latter. Especially performances by the New Shanghai Circus. But still. We’d been standing around in the (mild) cold for over half an hour and we wanted to see some destruction, dammit. Oh, I was also interviewed by a cameraman…but I don’t know for what channel. Should have asked, I guess, but I was cold. Hopefully I won’t come off sounding like an idjit. Eventually the ceremonial schlock began winding down and the key players moved into place. But no wrecking ball. Just a lousy little backhoe. And they didn’t even let into it with that. Oh no, they had to take turns. First letting one of the Vulcans have a go, and then I think the mayor too. So no wanton destruction for us to witness. We had a bus to catch. At least we had ourselves a little adventure. But soon it will be time to catch other buses, to work and to school.
